Evil Dead Burn: An Unfortunate Step Backwards for the Franchise (4K)

The Film:

Just three years ago, the "Evil Dead" film franchise finally felt like it was getting back on track with Lee Cronin's "Evil Dead Rise." It wasn't without issues, but it was a major improvement over the dreadful 2013 remake that had completely missed the point, merely attempting to see how much blood they could get on the screen instead of trying to tell a compelling story. With Cronin making the unfortunate decision to go off and direct his disappointing "Mummy" film, that left the director's chair open for someone else to step in and take the reigns of the next "Evil Dead" entry. In steps the rather unlikely choice of Sebastien Vanicek, who only had three shorts and one feature film (the well-received "Infested" from 2023) to his name, to give us "Evil Dead Burn," from a screenplay that he co-wrote with Florent Bernard. Could this surprise pick possibly be the right choice to continue steering this series in the right direction?

The film opens with a brief prologue of sorts that shows us Joseph Price (Hunter Doohan) going through his late grandfather's research involving deadites and a dagger that can be used to fight them, a weapon that he accidentally makes known to the demons. This is quickly followed by deadite Jessica (Greta Van Den Brink) (from "Rise") emerging from a lake to kill two fishermen. The scene then shifts to a restaurant owned by William Price (George Pullar), Joseph's brother, where he argues with his wife Alice (Souheila Yacoub), with Joseph and his girlfriend Thya (Luciane Buchanan) awkwardly standing by. William leaves in a drunken huff, speeding down a dark road where he hits Jessica with his car, causing him to crash into the woods. With William trapped in the car as he burns alive, Jessica's severed head recites a passage from the Necronomicon to turn him into a deadite.

William's funeral is attended Alice, Joseph, and Thya, as well as his parents, Susan (Tandi Wright) and Edgar (Erroll Shand), and grandmother Polly (Maude Davey). When Edgar takes a private moment to say goodbye to his son before the cremation, deadite William gets loose and burns his arm, a fact he keeps hidden from everyone. They all reunite at Joseph's house, where tensions between family members start to come out, but with Edgar's "condition," we soon see that family squabbles are the least of their problems.

Indeed, "Evil Dead Rise" may have had its problems, including a bit of a slow start and a climax that could've used some work, but it was definitely a big step in the right direction for a film franchise that had gotten derailed by the pointless, gratuitous bloodbath that was the 2013 remake. As the torch passes to the relatively-unknown Vanicek, the hope is that he can keep up the momentum, or at least deliver something on the same level as Cronin's admirable attempt to course-correct the series.

When it comes to "Evil Dead Burn," much like its predecessor, it gives us a small dose of deadite action before giving us a full introduction to most of the main characters. This is followed by what could be considered another torch passing of sorts, with a deadite from the previous film falling and one from this new entry rising. However, this is where we take an extended break so that the writers can fill us in on the remaining characters and explore the family dynamics/issues that have all come to the surface following William's death.

As far as trying to give us some fleshed-out characters to care about, the best that can be said of Vanicek & Bernard's attempt is that they at least tried. The family squabbles that erupt at the dinner table just aren't that interesting, and it certainly doesn't help that they get tossed aside rather quickly as the true purpose of the film is unveiled. From here, the filmmakers make it perfectly clear as to what their goal was, which was basically to give a minimum amount of character development, and then simply spend the rest of the film trying to gross the audience out as much as possible.

To put it simply, they've caused the franchise to slide back down aways, opting to revert back to the pointless bloodbath of the remake, as opposed to venturing forward with the progress that Cronin had made. This is, of course, not to say that "Rise" didn't have a fair amount of blood in it, but it never came off as overly-gratuitous, and that was on top of having more interesting & better-developed characters that you could actually care about. With "Burn," the characters just aren't particularly engaging, but again, their in-depth development was clearly never a priority, nor an important goal, in the first place.

When all is said and done, it's likely that the only things you'll remember from this latest entry are flesh being torn apart & blood flying every which way. It's a shame to have to say that it takes a big step backwards for the franchise, but I suppose some hope remains, for we have another entry on the way from another relatively-unknown director with Francis Galluppi's "Evil Dead Wrath" due out in about a year and a half. Perhaps he can be the one to put it back on course after this unfortunate backwards detour. While it would be great to get a new film in the series that truly recaptures the fun of the original trilogy, Cronin showed us that, even among these far-darker recent entries, there's a way to make it work decently enough. Now it's just a matter of finding someone else who truly gets it.

Video/Audio:

"Evil Dead Burn" comes to 4K in a 2.39:1, 2160p Ultra High Definition transfer of marvelous quality. This can be a very dark film at times, but the picture remains beautifully sharp & clear throughout its entire 110-minute duration, perfectly highlighting its multitude of gruesome makeup effects. Likewise, the Dolby Atmos-TrueHD audio track is excellent, giving you all of the dialogue, sound effects, and music in outstanding quality. Overall, Warner Bros. has done a wonderful job in both areas for the film's physical debut.

Special Features:

Evil Dead: Blazing the Trail (6 Minutes): A featurette that goes behind the scenes of the film.

The Hot Shot: Evil Dead Burn's One-Shot Sequence (5 Minutes): A brief look at how the filmmakers pulled off the film's complex oner.

This One's Gonna Burn (5 Minutes): A featurette that explores the film's makeup, the car stunt, and fire effects.

Conclusion:

Sebastien Vanicek's "Evil Dead Burn" is an unfortunate step backwards for a film franchise that had just started to get back on track with its previous entry, sadly opting to revert back to a bare minimum of character development, followed by a pointless, gratuitous bloodbath, ultimately making for a rather forgettable film in the series in which the filmmakers clearly didn't understand the assignment.

Score: 2.5/5

Now available on 4K.

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